Many items of home and office equipment comprise enclosures which are normally shut, but which may be opened by manipulation of an access handle which is turned to release an associated mechanism. Such access handles are common, in particular in devices such as printers, photocopiers, fax machines and folder/inserter machines. Typically, the access handle is attached to a rotational shaft which forms part of a locking/release mechanism. Each handle has, essentially, two rotational orientations-open and closed. In the closed position, the handle is positioned to lock the mechanism in a closed or operational position which enables normal operation of the device in which it is located. In the open position, the associated mechanism becomes unlocked, allowing, for example, an access panel to be opened, a section of machinery to be removed, or a section of machinery to be moved from an operational position in which its performs normal function to an access position in which an operator may gain access to that machine section (as might be required in order to clear a jam or blockage or to replace print toner).
Typically, such access handles might consist simply of a cylindrical knob which may be turned to the appropriate orientation in order to either open or close the associated mechanism. More commonly, these access handles comprises a lever arm attached at one end to the rotational shaft to thereby allow a user to apply a larger torque to the shaft.
A typical arrangement might include an elongate lever arm attached to a cylindrical hub. The cylindrical hub has a hole therein which mates with a corresponding section on the shaft. In known handles, the hole has a D-shaped cross-section, and the corresponding shaft to which the handle is to be attached has a corresponding flattened section at one end to produce a D-shaped cross-section which mates with the D-shaped hole in the access handle.
Whilst this arrangement works adequately, it nevertheless has disadvantages.
In a device which has a plurality of access handles, it is likely that the handles will need to be located within the machine at various different orientations, both with respect to the machine itself and with respect to the flattened section of the rotational shaft. Thus, it is common that a separately-moulded handle element is required for each rotational shaft in the machine, each one of the handles having a hole with the D-shaped cross-section oriented at a different angle to the lever arm. This problem is particularly exacerbated by the manufacturing requirements of the rotational shaft. Theoretically, the flat portions of the rotational shaft could be oriented on each shaft in order that only a single design of handle would be needed. However, because of other components forming part of the rotational shaft, it is not always possible or economical to manufacture the shaft in this way, and the orientation of the flattened section of the shaft may be chosen purely for manufacturing reasons independent of alignment considerations with the handle.
A further consideration is that it is often desirable to label the hub of the handle with an appropriate symbol, such as an arrow or lettering. The alignment of such labelling is therefore dependent not only upon the orientation of the D-shaped part of the rotational shaft, but also on the orientation of the handle lever arm when attached to the rotational shaft.